Open World elements in FF14

[Skiros]

1. Daily hunt bills take you all over the map.
2. Finding your weekly mark takes you all over the map.
3. Scouting A ranks takes you all over the map.
4. Spawning S ranks takes you all over the map depending on the condition.
5. Fate farming takes you all over the map.
6. Sight seeing log as you mentioned takes you all over the map.
7. Side quests take you all over the place as well.
8. Gathering takes you to a number of gathering points around the map.
9. Treasure maps take you all over the map depending on where the X is.

All of these things are popular and done by many people.

FATEs are supposed to do this and some of them used to only be seen when you were close to them, but the problem is that nobody activated them because they were unaware of them.

Exploration =/= going all over the map. Please get better at reading comprehension. The only thing that actually resembles exploration is the sightseeing log because some of them are in hidden nooks and crannies. Flying around the map is not exploration:

Many activities we do in the open world are "fly from the aetheryte to your destination".

Exactly. One of the biggest reasons why the earlier zones of Eureka felt explorable is because you can't fly.